Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression

Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression

by Shaun McNiff
Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression

Imagination in Action: Secrets for Unleashing Creative Expression

by Shaun McNiff

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Overview

A guide to the theory and practice of creativity, with proven techniques for jump-starting the creative process—from an esteemed art educator and therapist

There are art teachers—and then there’s Shaun McNiff. An accomplished painter himself, he has spent a career helping people access their creative potential through expressive arts therapy. Now, he is sharing the secrets he’s learned from observing his own creative process as well as that of others—both those who identify as artists and those who don’t. The result is nothing less than a master class in creativity by one of the great creative theorists and practitioners of our time.
 
“This is intended as a practical text,” Shaun says, “a creativity primer, striving to capture the essential things that have been of use to me and others.”
 
The wealth of instruction he provides here in these essential things will be indispensable to artists of all stripes, as well as to all who strive to express themselves with honesty and authenticity using any of the media life makes available.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780834801974
Publisher: Shambhala
Publication date: 08/04/2015
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 256
File size: 327 KB

About the Author

SHAUN MCNIFF is internationally recognized as a leading figure in the field of Art Therapy, and he is the founder of the graduate program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which the field of Expressive Arts Therapy emerged. Now a university professor at Lesley, he is himself a visual artist as well as the author of numerous other books, including Art As Medicine, Trust the Process, and Creating with Others.

Table of Contents

Prelude 1

Part 1 Creativity Is a Force of Nature

1 It Can Be as Natural as Breathing 9

2 Re-Visioning the Creative Act 13

Part 2 The Best Things Happen

3 A Failure-Proof Starter 23

4 Move … and Pause, Too 28

5 Shifting to Response Mode 39

6 Momentum and Creative Contagion 48

7 Shaping and Moving Things Around 54

8 Aspirations and Desire 60

Part 3 To Witness Rather Than to Judge

9 Witnessing Others and the Self in Action 67

10 Depth Is on the Surface 71

11 Knowing the Judge 74

12 Overthinking 79

13 Dynamics of Witnessing 83

14 Leading 92

15 Interpretation as Witnessing 98

16 Contemplating Physical Things 106

17 Thin Places 110

Part 4 Creating with the Shadow

18 Art Alchemy 119

19 Accepting Angst 126

20 An Engine of Change 131

21 Sanitizing 135

22 Welcoming the Strange 143

Part 5 Resistance Is a Gateway

23 Stalled 151

24 Letting Go and Forgetting 156

25 Feeling Safe 159

26 Using Resistance 165

Part 6 Quality Matters

27 Unique Character 171

28 Skill 180

29 Perfectionism and the Role of Mistakes 189

30 Let Nature Act through You 203

31 Make the Commitment 211

32 Serendipity and Endless Possibilities 229

Notes 233

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